00 


7—755. 


The  Federal  Census  of  Manufactures, 

1900. 


A    Paper  read    before   the    National    Association    of   Manufacturers,  at 
Boston,  Mass.,  April  2S,  1900. 


Uy   S.   N.   D.  NORTH, 
Chief  Statistician. 


I  rejoice  at  the  opportunity  to  address  so  large  and  intelligent  a 
body  of  manufacturers  on  the  subject  of  the  approaching  Federal 
census  of  manufactures.  I  bespeak  the  sympathy  and  cooperation 
of  you  all,  in  this  tremendous  statistical  undertaking  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  dwell,  in  such  a  company, 
upon  the  importance  and  utility  of  such  a  work.  The  decennial 
census  of  manufactures  is  the  only  approximately  accurate'  guide  to 
the  actual  progress  of  our  industrial  development.  It  is  just  as 
essential  to  a  true  understanding  of  our  position,  as  is  an  observa- 
tion of  the  sun  to  the  mariner,  after  he  has  been  sailing  for  many 
days  under  cloudy  skies  and  against  adverse  winds.  It  is  true  we 
have  many  admirable  compilations  of  trade  statistics  from  commer- 
cial bodies  and  private  sources;  we  have  in  the  Government  reports 
accurate  details  of  the  gn.wth  of  our  export  and  import  trade;  we 
know  the  tonnage  annually  moved  by  our  transportation  lines;  we 
know  approximately  the  annual  cotton  crop  and  wool  clip,  and  the 
domestic  consumption  of  each  fibre;  we  know  the  number  of  tons 
of  coal,  iron,  copper,  etc.,  annually  mined;  the  number  of  bushels 
of  corn,  wheat,  and  oats  harvested;  and  out  of  all  this  dat:i  we  can 
construct  a  fairly  complete  picture  of  our  industrial  stratus  in  one 
year  as  compared  with  a  predecessor  year  or  decade.     But  with  all 


31 


these  modern  facilities  for  collecting  the  statistical  data  essential 
to  the  intelliLfent  conduct  of  modern  business,  it  remains  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  method  of  measuring  the  all  'round  i)rogress  and 
development  of  the  thousand  and  one  big  and  little  industries,  each 
dependent  in  greater  or  less  degree  ui)on  all  the  otliers,  which  make 
up  the  vast  and  intricate  conglomerate  of  our  industrial  entity, 
save  that  supplied  by  our  tenth-year  Federal  census. 

With  each  recurring  decade,  we  are  again  amazed  at  the  extraor- 
dinary rate  of  growth  this  ten-year  counting  brings  to  liglit.  We 
are  now  on  the  eve  of  the  census  which  is  to  supply  the  figures 
which  will  round  out  the  growth  of  the  United  States  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  and  be  the  starting  point  from  which  the  progress 
of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  measured.  From  that  point  of 
view,  the  Census  of  1900  is  by  all  odds  the  most  interesting  and 
important  yet  taken.  From  another  point  of  view,  it  is  even  more 
interesting  and  important,  for  it  is  to  record  a  progress  in  indus- 
trialism, in  comparisoii  with  ten  years  ago,  greater  and  broader 
than  any  of  us  can  yet  intelligently  conceive,  a  jjrogress  that  has 
never  been  approached,  or  approximated,  by  any  ten-year  advance 
in  this  country,  or  in  any  country,  in  any  age. 

Prophecy  is  bad  business  for  statisticians  to  indulge  in;  but  1 
have  discovered  enough  already,  in  the  preliminary  work  of  the 
census,  to  warrant  the  statement  just  made.  It  so  happens  that 
this  Twelfth  Census  not  only  winds  uj)  the  record  of  a  century, 
but  falls  in  a  year  of  unprecedented  business  activity.  The  value 
of  products  will  be  swelled  by  constant  over-time  work  in  thou- 
sands of  mills  and  factories  and  by  the  great  advance  in  prices 
which  has  taken  place,  and  which  will  represent,  by  a  rough  calcu- 
lation, an  increase  of  33  ])er  cent  in  the  value  that  would  have  been 
assigned  to  the  identical  volume  of  production,  had  the  census 
been  taken  two  years  earlier.  Thus  conditions  essentially  abnor- 
mal have  to  be  dealt  with;  and  we  are  to  have  a  new  illustration  of 
the  danger  and  ditticulty  of  making  comparisons  between  <-ensuses 
of  industry  taken  ten  years  apart,  under  economic  conditions 
widely  different. 

There  are  other  causes  which  lend  unMsiiiil  interest  to  the  ap- 
proaching census  of  manufactures.  We  have  witnessed,  since  the 
last  census,  a  startling  transformation  in  the  methods  of  carrying 
on  many  of  our  great  industries.      The  reorganization  of  the  inanu- 


y 


8 

facturing  business,  through  combination  and  consolidation,  has 
created  industrial  conditions  without  precedent  in  history,  which 
seem  to  set  at  naught  some  of  tlie  time-honored  maxims  of  political 
economy,  which  must  readjust  many  of  our  social  relations,  and 
which  may  largely  influence  and  modify  the  future  legislation  of 
Congress  and  the  States. 

In  defiance  of  the  frantic  efforts  of  State  legislatures  to  check 
their  progress  and  embarrass  their  operations,  these  Goliath  com- 
binations have  possessed  themselves  of  the  great  8taj)le  industries 
of  the  country  to  such  an  extent  that  they  represent  a  capitaliza- 
tion— including  the  water — equal  to  the  whole  amount  of  capital 
reported  to  the  Eleventh  Census  as  employed  in  all  our  big  and 
little  industries  in  1890.  Just  what  their  relations  to  the  smaller 
industries  are  to  be;  just  what  is  to  be  their  effect  upon  wages,  upon 
prices,  upon  competition,  upon  the  general  industrial  conditions 
and  prosperity  of  the  masses,  we  do  not  know;  yet  this  is  the 
problem  which,  more  than  all  others  combined,  interests  the  Ameri- 
can people  to-day.  The  intelligent  solution  is  impossible  until  the 
statistics  of  the  Twelfth  Census  are  available,  as  a  basis  upon  which 
to  formulate  it.  What  proportion  of  the  industrial  activity  of  the 
country  is  now  so  controlled?  What  effect,  if  any,  has  it  in  reduc- 
ing the  number  of  those  occupied  in  productive  industry,  both  as 
employers  and  employed — upon  these  questions  turn  the  whole 
sociological  and  economic  effects  of  the  industrial  combination; 
and  no  answer  is  possible  until  the  census  furnishes  figures  to 
start  with. 

Some  fear  has  been  expressed  lest  the  great  industrial  combina- 
tions shall  refuse  to  respond  to  the  questions  of  the  Census  Othce, 
and  thus  defeat  the  object  of  the  work  in  an  important  particular. 
I  do  not  share  in  that  fear.  Our  preliminary  inquiries  have  met 
with  prompt  and  satisfactory  responses  from  these  corporations. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  with  the  existing  popular  feeling  against 
the  big  corporation— much  of  it  unreasoning  and  unfounded — that 
their  managers  will  increase  it  and  inflame  it  by  refusing  to  tlu- 
Census  Office  information  which  the  law  requires  them  to  im])art. 
On  the  contrary,  their  returns  will  probably  be  the  most  exhaustive 
and  com])lete  that  we  receive.  In  one  sense  their  creation  has 
enormously  complicated  the  difficulty  of  taking  the  census  of  man- 
ufactures.     For   it   has   brought    under   one   central    management 


,v 

ivi35554{) 


plants  located  in  many  <lifferent  citiew  and  StateH,  whose  pnKlucts 
must  be  properly  credited  to  the  several  loralities  in  whieh  they 
are  situated.  Sueh  a  separation  of  the  combined  statistics  will  be 
impossible  without  the  :ii<l  <>\'  the  expert  bookkeepers  employed  by 
these  icrv.W  (nu^aiii/.atioiis  and  that  we  (•(iiitidciitly  rely  upon  get- 
ting. 

Contemporaneous  with  the  develojtment  of  the  industrial  combi- 
nation, and  by  many  peo]>le  attributed  largely  to  the  cheaper  pro- 
diu'tion  and  improved  l)usines8  nu'thods  thus  brought  about,  has 
been  an  c'n<)nn(»u8  development  in  tlic  cxjiort  of  niainifactiirt'd  aiti- 
tles  produced  in  the  United  States. 

In  1860  the  value  of  our  manufactured  exports  was  only  ^4^J,- 
000,000;  ill  1890  it  had  grown  to  1151,000,000,  an  increase  nearly 
fourfold  ;  and  in  the  fiscal  year  ending  last  July  it  was  *340,000,000, 
an  increase  since  the  last  Federal  t-ensus  of  more  than  100  per 
cent  and  of  741  per  cent  in  the  forty  years  since  18()0.  It  is  a 
record  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations.* 

This  ten  years'  development  in  the  uiaimfacturing  exports  of  the 
United  States  has  compelled  the  world's  statisticians  to  rewrite 
their  prognostications,  and  to  recognize  the  swift  advance  of  this 
country  toward  the  front  rank  among  the  exporting  nations. 
England  annually  exports,  of  similar  manufactured  articles,  about 
%1, 000, 000, 000  in  round  numbers,  (iermany  about  %550,000,000, 
and  France  alxiut  &;37u, 000,000.  If  the  relative  advance  in  the 
value  of  manufactured  exj)orts  shall  continue  in  the  same  ratio,  as 
l)etweoii  the  four  nations,  the  United  States  will  pass  France  before 
another  year,  will  ]tass  Germany  in  ten  years,  an<l  will  ])as8 
England  in  twenty-five  years. 

It  does  not  seem  extravagant  to  i-xpeet  that  these  changes  in  the 
rank  of  the  exporting  nations  will   be  realized   in  the  periods  indi- 


*  EXPORTS  OF  DOMESTIC  M.XNIFACTURES. 


VKAK. 

VAl.l'K. 

Peecbntaqe  op  Increase 

Over  1860. 

Over  1870. 

Over  1880. 

Over  1890. 

1860 

DoUari. 

■10,»46,000 

tW, 280, 000 

Kni.K-ifi.OOO 

151,102.000 

3«9,.'>92,000 

* 

1870 
1880 

69 
156 
275 
742 

si' 

121 
897 



1890 
1899 

47 
230 

125 

cated.  It  is  a  commercial  triumph  predicted  for  us  by  the 
shrewdest  observer  of  industrial  conditions  who  has  lately  examined 
the  situation  with  critical  understanding.  I  refer  to  M.  Emile 
Levasseur,  the  French  economist,  whose  recently  published 
volumes  on  the  progress  of  American  industrialism  have  attracted 
world-wide  attention.  "To  produce  in  large  quantities,  quickly 
and  cheaply,"  writes  M.  Levasseur  in  these  volumes,  "the  United 
States  is  better  equipped  than  any  other  land  in  the  world."  He 
gives  many  illustrations  to  contirm  this  statement.  Another  has 
recently  come  to  my  knowledge,  more  forcible  in  some  ways  than 
any  narrated  by  M.  Levasseur.  L^pon  the  outbreak  of  the  South 
African  war,  the  British  govei-nment  had  immediate  need  for  a 
large  number  of  horse  blankets  for  the  use  of  its  (cavalry  in  the 
distant  continent.  It  could  find  no  manufacturei-  in  all  fireat 
Britain  who  would  undertake  to  execute  an  order  for  the  delivery 
of  a  specified  number  of  horse  blankets,  of  a  specified  qualitv, 
within  the  time  limit  set  by  the  government.  It  found  an  American 
mill,  represented  by  an  agent  in  London,  which  was  willing  to 
take  the  contract  and  to  guarantee  its  fulfillment  to  the  letter.  The 
contract  was  awarded,  and  every  week  since  there  has  been  shipped 
from  the  United  States  to  South  Africa  the  specified  number  of 
blankets,  not  one  of  which  has  been  rejectccl  as  inferior  to  the  rigid 
requirements.  We  can  hardly  fail  to  be  reininded  by  this  episode 
that  something  over  a  (century  ago,  when  the  American  colonies 
were  engaged  in  their  struggle  for  inde])endeiK'e  from  English  rule, 
so  desperate  was  their  plight  and  so  meager  their  own  manufactur- 
ing facilities,  that  in  order  to  clothe  and  blanket  their  armies  they 
were  compelled  to  smuggle  through  France  woolen  goods  made  by 
the  nation  with  which  they  were  at  war. 

The  Census  can  not  throw  much  additional  light  upon  the  value 
or  the  character  of  our  manufactured  exports.  The  Treasury 
Bureau  of  Statistics  furnishes  that  information  with  admirable 
detail  and  accuracy.  But  the  census  can  exhibit  to  us,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Treasury  statistics,  the  present  relationship 
between  actual  production  and  export — the  home  consumptii^n  and 
the  foreign  consumption,  with  respect  to  every  important  article 
of  domestic  manufacture.  Heretofore  this  information  has  been 
of  little  consequence;  for  the  export  trade  has  hardly  been  a  factor 
in  calculating  supply  and  demand.      But  as  this  foreign  trade  goes 


6 

on  expanding;  and  iiicrcaHint;,  it  will  come  to  have  an  intimate 
bearing  ujtoii  the  actual  output  of  our  mills.  The  Census  of  I'.iUU 
will  for  the  first  time  make  an  effort  to  measure  it,  in  many 
industries,  in  direct  comparison  with  the  home  consunipti<tn. 

These  several  causes  have  contributed  to  create  unusual  interest 
in  the  Twelfth  Census  of  Manufactures.  We  detect  the  evidence 
of  this  in  the  anxiety  of  different  communities  that  proper  men 
shall  be  selected  to  supervise  and  carry  on  the  local  work.  We 
detect  it  in  the  action  of  Chambers  of  Commerce,  Boards  of  Trade, 
and  other  industrial  and  commercial  organizations,  looking  to  a 
thorough  canvass  of  their  respective  bx-alities,  and  pledging  the 
active  sympathy  and  cooperation  of  manufacturers  and  business 
men.  Director  Merriam  and  those  associated  with  him  welcome 
these^signs  of  popular  interest  in  the  work,  and  of  local  pride  in 
the  making  of  a  creditable  showing  of  advance  over  1890.  It  is 
by  this  census  that  the  status  of  every  city  and  town  in  the  United 
{states  will  be  judged  for  the  next  ten  years,  in  respect  to  its  relative 
importance  as  a  manufacturing  and  industrial  center. 

Responsive  to  this  universal  desire,  the  Director  is  ))lanning  for 
the  best  census  of  naanufactures  yet  taken.  The  machinery  of 
organization  is  being  rapidly  perfected,  with  this  end  in  view.  An 
inside  study  of  previous  censuses  reveals  spots  and  causes  of  defect 
and  deficiency — unavoidable  at  the  time — which  special  pains  will 
now  be  taken  to  cover  and  to  prevent. 

One  potent  cause  of  these  previous  defects  has  been  the  insuf- 
riciency  of  appropriations  for  carrying  on  the  tield  w'ork  rapidly, 
(continuously  and  efficiently.  Ten  years  ago,  it  frequently  happened 
that  two  years  or  more  elapsed  })efore  the  canvass  of  some  of  our 
largest  industrial  centers  was  coinpleted.  At  one  period  the  Held 
work  was  suspended  for  several  iiioiiths,  for  lack  of  money.  When 
the  canvass  w'as  again  taken  up  the  threads  were  lost,  and  in  some 
instances  it  was  never  resumed  at  all.  Four  yearn  thus  idapsed, 
after  the  coninicncement  of  the  Eleventh  Census,  Ix'fore  its  full 
results  were  available.  Congress  was  tpiite  right  in  its  declaration 
that  statistics  so  tar<ly  and  so  stale  have  lost  half  their  value — 
althougii  I  do  not  think  that  Congress  ap|ncciati'd  its  own  share  of 
responsibility  for  the  delay.  At  any  rate,  the  law  now  declares 
that  the  conipletecl  results  of  the  census  <d'  manufact un's,  as  well 
as  of  population  and  agriculture,  shall  be  publisluMl  within  two 
years  from  .1  line   I  st  next. 


Congress  had  no  conception  of  tin*  task  it  thus  imposed  upon  the 
Census  Office.  I  doubt  it"  we  in  the  work  have  yet  come  to  fully 
appreciate  its  tremendous  magnitude.  I  do  not  know  that  it  will 
prove  possible  to  comply  with  the  mandate  of  Congress.  But  the 
Director  says  that  it  must  be  done,  and  we  are  going  to  try  to  do  it. 

Perhaps  I  can  convey  some  statistical  conception  of  the  amount 
of  clerical  work  involved.  We  anticipate  the  receipt  of  some 
000,000  schedules  from  as  many  difl'erent  establishments  of  jiro- 
ductive  industry,  large  and  small.  Each  schedule  projxM-iv  tilled 
will  contain  from  forty  to  sixty  different  entries.  Each  schedule 
must  be  checked,  classified,  edited,  the  revision  verified,  tal)ulated, 
added,  and  the  addition  verified,  before  the  final  publication. 
Involved  in  these  processes  for  600,000  schedules  there  are  more 
than  200,000,000  separate  handlings  of  distinct  items.  In  the 
rehandling  of  the  schedules  involved  in  the  tabulation  by  localities 
and  by  industries,  and  in  the  double  proof  reading  and  preparation 
for  the  press,  there  are  as  many  more  separate  operations,  many  of 
them  calculations;  and  for  this  mountain  of  work  Congress  allows 
600  working  days.  This  implies  in  a  working  force  of  300  clerks, 
an  average  of  2,000  operations  or  calculations  a  day,  or  300  an 
hour,  or  5  a  minute. 

You  will  readily  understand,  from  this  rough  statement,  that 
money  is  not  all  that  is  needed  to  make  a  quick  census  and 
make  it  right.  There  is  a  limit  to  the  numbei-  of  clerks  who  can 
be  worked  upon  the  technical  and  complicated  schedules  of  manu- 
factures with  satisfactory  results ;  and  all  such  clerks  have  first  to 
be  trained  and  tested  before  they  can  do  it  at  all. 

We  would  like  to  make  it  not  only  the  quickest  and  the  most 
thorough  census  of  manufactures  yet  taken,  but  in  all  other 
respects  the  best  and  the  most  satisfactory.  We  have  all  the 
experience  of  the  past  to  help  us  in  this  endeavor.  We  know  the 
former  defects  and  shall  aim  to  avoid  them.  First  of  all,  we  shall 
seek  to  avoid  the  error  of  attempting  to  accomplish  too  much. 
The  general  manufacturing  schedule  prepared. is  the  simplest  in 
construction  that  has  been  adopted  for  three  censuses.  It  contains 
no  inquiry  that  has  n(jt  been  placed  there  by  the  direct  mandate  of 
Congress.  It  calls  for  no  fact  not  essential  to  a  full  understanding 
of  the  present  economic  conditions  of  industry.  Nevertheless, 
there  are  questions  which  in  sonie  instances  it  will  be  difficult  to 
answer.      Personally  I  doubt  the  utility  of  the  incpiiry  as  to   the 


8 

amount  of  cajiital  iiivestcMl  in  nxanufactiirini;,  bec-ausj*  I  doubt  the 
possibililv  of  f«i  franiintr  the  (jueHti<tn  that  the  return  will  j»osHess 
intrinHic  vahu\  as  trul\  iiidicativc  of  the  aiiioimt  of  cajiital 
actually  and  daily  required  to  carry  on  this  ^reat  hrancii  of  national 
busiiu'ss.  Hut  Congress  demands  that  it  he  made;  and  it  will 
readilv  he  understood  that  if  Congress  hail  faileil  to  demand  it.  the 
cry  would  at  once  have  been  raised  tliat  it  was  seeking  to  protect 
capital  from  the  necessity  of  making  a  return  that  woidd  approxi- 
mately indicate  the  profits  of  manufacture. 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  no  such  knowledge  can  l>e 
obtaine<l  from  the  statistics  of  a  census,  no  matter  how  carefully 
the  iiKjuiries  are  <lrawn.  Neither  fi-om  an  individual  scdiedule,  nor 
from  the  tabulation  of  any  numl)er  of  s(diedules,  can  tlie  profits  of 
a  concern  be  ascertained,  nor  is  it  any  projter  part  of  the  functions 
of  a  census  to  ascertain  them. 

The  inutility  of  tlie  capital  in(|uiry  has  l)een  increased  by  the 
multiidication  of  imbistrial  condnnations  in  manufacturing. 
whereby  many  plants  have  l»een  broiiglit  togetlur  under  one  man- 
agement, and  ca]iitalized  on  the  Itasis  of  their  earning  power, 
rather  than  the  actual  investment.  It  is  clear  that  the  aggregate 
of  capital  represented  in  the  bonds  and  stock.  }irefei-red  and  com- 
mon, issued  oi-  that  may  be  issued,  by  these  industrial  combina- 
tions, is  in  no  sense  the  measure  of  the  ca|»ital  re(|uired  to  carry  on 
their  itusiness.  and  i'or  this  icason  the  Census  will  make  no  effort 
to  ascertain  it.  It  would  be  a  iiypothetical  total,  oi'  interest  only 
to  the  curious.  Nevertheless,  it  represents  sonu'thing.  nu)re  or  less 
tangibh',  the  existence  of  which  still  I'uitlier  in\  .'ilidates  the  iitilitv 
of  the  census  impiirv  regarding  capital. 

I  (b»  not  intend,  in  a  papei'  of  this  character,  to  hurden  nou  with 
details  of  the  methods  oi'  the  othce.  'Pile  gicat  mass  (d'  the 
returns  will  he  made  to  the  Census  Office  on  a  gi'Ueral  schedide 
known  as  Nundx'r  ;J.  'riiirty-lhree  special  schedules  are  pro- 
vided. toi-  ;is  many  separate  iixluslries  which  it  is  desirable  to 
report  with  greater  fullness  u\'  detail.  In  the  industries  thus 
S)>eciali/,e(|,  like  the  textile  manufactures,  iron  and  steel,  leather, 
paper,  glass,  pottery,  lumliei-.  ni.i(liiner\  ,  sliipi»ni  Iding,  the  chem- 
ical industries,  et<-.,  the  Division  of  Manufactures  has  «-alled  to  its 
assistance  a  hody  of  expert  special  agents,  fitted  bv  long  studv  to 
propeily  and  intelligently  compile  and  present  the  statisti<s  \\hicli 
represent    the   recent    growth    of   the   industries  committed   to  their 


charge.  It  is  not  tlie  intention  of  the  office  to  neglect  the  great 
lines  of  manufacture  which  do  not  require  a  special  schedule  or 
the  services  of  an  expert  agent.  For  every  industry  carried  on  in 
our  niidst — and  in  their  various  specialties  they  are  between  four 
hundred  and  five  lumdred  in  nuniher — it  plans  to  i>resent  the  most 
complete  Ixidy  of  statistics  yet  compiled.  If  it  fails  at  any  ]»oint, 
it  will  he  because  it  is  a  ]>hysical  impossibility  to  finish  its  woi-k 
within  the  time  allowed.  ' 

To  acconi]»lish  the  work  within  the  time  limit  set,  the  Held  work 
must  be  practically  completed  within  30  days,  or  60  days  at  the 
most,  from  June  1st.  We  must  have  our  material  to  work  with, 
and  this  is  where  you  manufacturers  can  help  us.  In  the  last 
analysis  it  lies  wholly  with  you,  whether  this  census  is  to  be  a 
correct  and  satisfactory  exhibit  of  our  industrial  condition,  and 
whether  it  is  to  be  ready  for  use  at  the  time  set  by  Congress.  It 
is  in  vour  power  to  make  or  to  mar  it. 

The  task  of  the  Enumerator  and  the  Special  Agent  of  the  Census 
Office  is  not  a  pleasant  one  at  the  best.  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  of 
anv,  which  I  would  not  myself  prefer.  The  book  canvasser's  lot 
is  a  happy  one,  compared  to  that  of  the  census  agent  who  enters 
the  office  of  the  manufacturer  with  the  long  and  com]>licated 
schedule  of  inquiries  required  by  Congress,  and  demands  that  the 
details  of  his  business  shall  be  spread  out  before  him.  The  natural 
disposition  of  the  manufacturer  is  to  resent  the  inquisition.  He 
looks  upon  these  details  as  peculiaily  his  own  private  affair,  with 
which  the  ]iublic  and  the  Government  have  no  right  or  concern. 
He  is  temj)ted  to  visit  his  irritation  upon  the  agent,  forgetting 
that  the  latter  is  merely  carrying  out  instructions  and  doing  his 
duty.  Sometimes  he  flatly  refuses  the  information,  and  points  to 
the  door.  Sometimes  he  gives  it  grudgingly  and  imperfectly, 
greatly  increasing  the  labor,  the  trouble,  and  the  cost  of  securing 
it.  Frequently  he  fears  that  these  facts  about  his  business,  these 
business  secrets  of  his,  once  spread  out  upon  official  paper,  will 
become  the  property  of  the  public,  will  pass  into  the  hands  of  his 
business  competitors,  or  will  somehow  be  used  to  his  injury  and 
embarrassment  in  the  tabulation  of  results.  To  each  manufacturer 
who  'may  have  a  disposition  to  so  look  at  the  matter,  I  desire  to 
make  three  statements  : 

1.  Do  not  be  afraid  that  the  confidential  character  of  your  return 
will  not  be  respected.     It  never  has  happened  yet,  that  any  injury 


10 

has  come  to  any  one  tlirou^l)  tlie  improper  use  of  the  facts  obtained 
upon  a  census  schedule.  Tlie  agents  and  clerks  who  handle  them 
are  all  sworn  to  reveal  thcni  to  no  one.  The  <l:it;i  is  so  taltulated 
that  the  operations  of  no  individual  concern  can  In-  |iickc<l  out  iVoni 
the  tables.  The  facts  arc  as  safe  as  thonirli  tlicv  had  iicxcr  l»ct'ii 
given, 

2.  Do  not  resent  the  demand  i)t'  tlic  (Tovernment  for  this  iidor- 
mation.  For  ninety  years  now,  the  law  bf  Congress  lias  asserted 
the  right  of  the  Government,  to  secure  from  private  individuals  and 
concerns  those  details  which  are  necessary  to  obtain  the  aggregates 
which  reveal  the  industrial  resources  and  economic  con<litions  of 
our  people.  A  right  so  long  asserted,  never  successfully  disjiuted 
and  never  yet  abused,  ought  not  now  be  questioned  by  intelligent 
and  patriotic  manufacturers. 

3.  Since  it  must  be  done,  and  ought  to  be  done,  do  it  ciueifully, 
d()  it  jiromptly,  <lo  it  intelligently,  and  thereby  help  to  reduce  the 
labors  of  the  Census  agents  and  the  Census  Ottice  to  a  mininuuii. 
Remember  that  we  must  handle  more  than  half  a  million  scIkmIuIcs, 
representing  as  many  diflFerent  going  concerns,  big  and  little:  that 
we  must  supply  every  deficiency  in  every  one  of  these  schedules; 
that  if  it  is  of  such  a  character  that  we  cannot  ourselves  supj)ly  it. 
we  must  write  for  it,  or  send  an  agent  ]>erha])8  hundreds  of  miles 
on  pur])(>se  to  obtain  it;  that  we  must  reconcile  every  item  in  each  of 
these  half  million  schedules  with  every  other  item;  that  the  whole 
of  this  gigantic  work  may  be  held  up,  suspended,  while  we  wait 
for  your  single  return;  that  Congress  com]»els  us  to  do  all  this  in 
two  years'  time;  and  that  this  feat  is  impossible  without  your 
individual  sympathy  and  your  active  cooperation.  Instead  of 
blocking  and  embarrassing  our  work,  hel])  us  to  make  this  the  best 
and  the  quickest  Census  ever  taken. 

The  Census  Office,  on  the  other  hand,  will  do  everything  in  its 
power  to  assist  you.  It  will,  wherever  jiossiblc,  mail  to  you  the 
special  schedules  required  for  your  special  industries,  in  a»lv;tnc«' 
of  the  agent  or  enumerator,  so  as  to  allow  you  amjde  time  to  fill 
them  out.  It  will  allow  you  to  return  them  through  tin*  mails,  so 
that  they  need  never  pass  into  the  hands  of  a  local  representative 
of  the  Census  Office,  if  you  object  to  that.  It  will  givV  all 
possiV)le  aid  and  assistance,  through  iorrespondcncc,  in  tiic 
preparation  of  s(died  ides.  ll  will  neglect  not  hing  \\  ilhin  ils  |miuci- 
to  facilitate  and  ren<ler  easy,  vonr  compliance  with  the  l.iw. 


11 

No  census  of  manufactures  yet  taken  lias  been  free  from  very 
grave  faults;  but  each  succeeding  census  has  been  a  vast  improve- 
ment on  its  predecessor.  Those  in  charge  of  the  present  work 
will  be  unequal  to  their  o])portunity,  if  they  do  not  succeed  in 
making  the  Twelfth  Census  the  best  in  the  series — a  statistical 
photograph  of  the  productive  energies  of  the  nation  which  shall 
focus  an  industrial  wealth  and  resource  undreamed  of  in  the  past, 
as  our  opening  vision  t)f  the  twentieth  century. 

EXPERT  SPECIAL  AGENTS. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Expert  Special  Agents  of  the  Division  of  Manufactures,  with 
the  Industries  to  which  they  are  assigned  : 

Cotton  Manufactures,  and  Flax,  Hemp,  and  Jute  Manu- 
factures     Edward  Stanwood, 

i  201  Columbus  Ave., 

Boston,  Mass. 

Wool  Manufactures,  and  Hosiery  and  Knit  Goods William  J.  Battison, 

TOKilby  St., 

Boston,  Mass. 

Silk  Manufactures Franklin  Allen, 

Silk  Exchange  Bldg., 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Iron  and  Steel  Manufactures William  G.  Gray, 

261  South  4th  St., 

Philadelpliia,  Pa. 

Leather  Manufactures George  C.  Houghton, 

116  Bedford  St., 

Boston,  Mass. 

Glass  Manufactures Shirley  P.  Austin, 

417  Wood  St., 

Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Brick  and  Clay  Products Jefferson  Middleton, 

U.  S.  Geological  Survey, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Smelting  and  Refining  of  Metals Charles  Kirchhoflf, 

232  William  St., 

New  York.  N.  Y. 

Machinery  and  Electrical  Apparatus Edward  H.  Sanborn, 

The  Bourse, 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Coke,  Salt,  and  Clay  Products Edward  W.  Parker, 

U.  S.  Geological  Smrvey, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Chemicals Or.  Charles  E.  Munroe, 

Columbian  University. 

Washington,  D.  C. 
(Assistant)    Dr.  Thomas  M.  Chatard, 

Columbian  University, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Paper  Manufactures Charles  W.  Rantoul,  .Tr., 

Times  Building, 

New  York,  N.  Y. 

Lmnber  and  its  Manufactures William  L.  Wallace, 

315  Dearborn  St., 

Chicago,  111. 

Shipbuilding Alexander  R.  Smith. 

700  14th  St., 

Washington.  I).  C. 

Food  and  Kindred  Products Henry  E.  Alvord. 

Department  of  Agriculture, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Flour  and  Grist  Mills Dr.  H.  W.  Wiley, 

Department  of  Agriculture, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Carpets,  UphoLsterv  Goods,  Etc. - John  R.  Kendrick, 

102  South  12th  St., 

Philadelphia.  Pa. 

Beet  Sugar  Industry Dr.  G.  L.  Spencer, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


PAMPHLET  BrNDER 

Manufaclurtd  by 

GAYLORO  BROS,  Inc.  \ 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


